Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

I Like Sticks

By

When my kids were little, there were times when they’d put something in their mouths that was totally non-food related.

Like matches.

My mother always said, they only do that because they’re lacking something.

Okay, I’d buy that if they’re eating salt or drinking milk, but matches?

My mother said, they must need the sulfur. (So what was Lisa lacking when she drank that wine?  Yeast?)

I bring this up today because Hubby and I just had this conversation last night.

About Sampson.

Yesterday morning about 3:15, I was awoken by the jingle of dog tags.  Sampson was not on the bed, he was by the bedroom door.

When he has to potty, he gets off the bed and puts his face THUNK on the mattress in front of me.  He doesn’t go and wait by the door.

He only heads to the door when he’s going to vomit.

I got up and when I got to the bedroom door, even in the murky darkness, I could see the spot on the floor.

This isn’t infrequent. Without keeping track I’d say he vomits at least once per month.  Typically I’m a light sleeper and the sound of retching will shoot me straight up out of bed, but I didn’t hear him.

Poor little guy, he had to clean up after himself.

Had I had the opportunity to clean it up, (Yes, I really did just refer to cleaning up vomit as an opportunity.) I can almost guarantee you there were sticks in it.

Why?

Because Sampson likes to eat sticks.  And they always make him throw up.

Hubby and I always joke when we catch him eating a stick and say in a doofy voice, “I like sticks.”

I opened the bedroom door, found a flashlight and finished cleaning the mess.  Meanwhile, Sampson went and lay just outside the door.  I offered him the option of going outside.

He declined.

I headed back to bed and he went with me, jumped up and curled into my side, he wanted comforting.  So as I lay there for the next hour or so, comforting my dog these questions chased themselves around in mind.

Does he eat the sticks because he likes the taste but they make him sick or does his tummy bother him and he eats the sticks because he knows he will throw up and feel better?

And in the dark, quiet of the night I wonder, is it something more? Is there an underlying reason why he vomits frequently?

Did your mom abandon you for NaNoWriMo?

I just like sticks.

Delilah Stick Here you go Sampson, I’ve got a stick for you.

Hubby says, maybe he’s lacking something in his diet.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes those nefarious thoughts that fester in the dark on a sleepless night will stick with me long into the daylight.

As always, your thoughts and comments are appreciated.

Holler Holler for a Collar

By

Every single day at least one lost or found dog comes across my facebook page.  It breaks my heart, not just for the dog, but for the family who is missing their fur baby.

My dogs always have a collar on, even in the house and when we go outside, they have two.

S w 2

Why you ask?

Just in case they slip their collar and get away from me.  I think of it like a security blanket.

The flat buckle collar has three tags on it, their rabies tag, their town registration and a tag with their name, my name and my cell phone number on it.

2 Collars

The small collar is the one they wear in the house all the time.  That’s their just in case they escape from the house collar.

Which has happened, with both of them.

This is a hotly contested topic, some people don’t leave the collars on because they are worried about the dog getting hung up on something.  I’m lucky, both my dogs are pretty mellow during the day, moving from their spot on the couch to a spot on the bed or a spot in front of the sliding door.

But my dog is chipped.

Your dog might be chipped, but if they aren’t wearing a collar and someone finds them, the chip doesn’t help unless the person who finds them has a scanner.

I don’t know if my animal control facility has a scanner, if they don’t that means a trip to a local veterinarian that might be avoided if my name and phone number is on my dog’s tags.

Not a person in sight

A few years back on Christmas Eve I was driving home and I passed by our local reservoir.  I was shocked to see two yellow labs running along dragging their leashes.

I was concerned that someone had slipped, been mugged or hurt and dropped the dog’s leashes.  I was worried because the reservoir is on a busy road, and the dogs could very easily gotten hit by a car.

I pulled over and by using some treats, I coaxed one dog over to my car, the second dog followed.  Luckily the dogs had tags with a phone number on it.

I called the number and the man who answered said, “My wife is walking the dogs.”

I explained that the dogs were alone, and I couldn’t see his wife.  He responded, “I’m on my way.”

He was there within five minutes and told me his wife was on her way and when she walked the dogs she liked to drop the leashes to let them run.

In this instance they took off on her and she couldn’t catch them.

Once the man had his dogs, I headed for home and passed his wife, still making her way to where her husband was, I shouted to her that he had the dogs and they were safe.

The whole event, from start to finish was probably 15 to 20 minutes long.

15 to 20 minutes that her dogs were out of her sight.  Had they not had tags on them, I probably would have called animal control to come and pick them up.

Yes she had about a half an hour of panic, but it could have been a lot longer and it could have been a lot worse.  I think she also learned a valuable lesson that day: most people can’t run faster than their dogs.

I’ve asked this before, but I’ll ask it again, do your dogs wear collars in the house?  Why or why not?

Waist Not, Want Not

By

Back in July of 2008, Delilah had what we referred to as an episode, it was the first of three.  I won’t write about it here because it’s quite lengthy, but you can read it about on the page titled “Delilah’s Health,” which is nested under the “Cast of Characters” page.  I warn you now, it’s not my best writing, but I haven’t yet had the time to go in to make it presentable.

Eventually with the help of a wonderful Holistic Veterinarian, Dr. Kevin Landau, we determined it was not seizures as our vet suspected, but a pinched nerve due to her excessive weight.

The date was March 31, 2010 and she weighed 96.5 pounds.

after-treatment You can see how heavy she is in this photo, (this was after Dr. Landau’s treatment.)

To help her lose weight Dr. Landau suggested the raw food diet.  Sampson was heavy as well and there was no way I was putting one dog on raw food and not the other.

July 2010 056 This photo of Sampson was taken in July 17, 2010 he weighed 107 pounds.

At first expense was a real issue, so we started out feeding the dogs one raw meal per day, with the second meal being Taste of the Wild, a grain free kibble.

I also set up a rigid schedule of walking at least 30 minutes per day and longer on the weekends.  It helped that the field at the top of the street gives them lots of off-leash running, which helped the weight come off.

When Delilah went for her annual exam in June of 2010, she weighed in at 94.8 pounds.  Sampson’s annual exam was in October and he weighed 103.4.

In April of 2011, we went totally raw and we’ve never looked back.

That June, Delilah weighed in at 77.1 pounds, in October of the same year Sampson weighed in at 86.5 pounds.

We took Sampson with us when Delilah went for her annual in June of 2012 (moral support) Delilah weighed 74 pounds and Sampson weighed 89.  Our vet was over the moon.  She told us what a great job we’d done and said, we’ve probably given them 2 to 3 additional years of life.

Music to my ears and fuzzies for my heart.

They look great, but even better, they FEEL great.  You can see their increased energy and they run like puppies, which is amazing to see in dogs that are 7 and 8 1/2.

We are incredibly lucky in the fact that the distribution facility where we purchase our food has a dog nutritionist. Based upon Sandy’s calculations we feed them for what we want them to weigh, in this manner the weight comes off slowly and is more likely to remain off.

Normally their treats are carrots and a couple of grain free cookies, but I think we’ve been a little indulgent with the cookies, so I’m cutting their food back a teensy bit.

Here’s what we feed them.

Chicken necks with Welactin on them and about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of canned pumpkin for breakfast.

Ground turkey with veggies, a tablespoon of coconut oil, a probiotic and 1/8 to 1/4 cup of yogurt for dinner.

For snacks and training they mostly get baby carrots, but I do have banana chips and some chicken and brown rice sticks that I buy at Trader Joe’s.

At night they get the stuffed white bone (more on that for Tasty Tuesday.)  I did buy a bag of treats at the local warehouse and I think Hubby indulges those a little too much, hence the reason I am cutting back a bit on their food.

It’s hard to get a picture of their waists

Especially Delilah with her dark coloring.  I can see them clearly defined but it doesn’t show well in the pictures.

D-1 Can you see the cut in?  She kept trying to sit down, which is why I’m holding her back-end up.

D-2 Maybe it’s a little bit clearer here.

S1 Sampson was a little bit easier, but that’s only because he is so barrel chested.

S-2 He kept sitting down too, in his case I think it worked to my advantage.

I can’t see their ribs, but I’m working on that!  I love these two like crazy and want them with me and healthy as long as possible.

Show Off Your Dog's Waistline

This is a year-long blog hop hosted by Dawg Business, I will be back when the hop is over with a recap on how well we did losing those last few pounds.

You can see how others are helping their dogs become fit and healthy, as well as getting some awesome tips to help your pups lose weight by clicking on the links below.

Many thanks to Jana for creating and organizing this event.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...